Page 6087 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (6.18), in reply: Mr Speaker, I would like to thank both members who have spoken, Mr Humphries from the Liberal Party and Mr Collaery from the Rally. I am sure that members of the community who read the debate will be heartened by the total support from, I think, all parties for this legislation.
It is noteworthy that quite a lot of the work of this Assembly in the first three years has involved catching up with the other States. A lot of what we have been doing has related to putting in place laws which have been in place in other States for many years. That does not mean that they are not desperately needed. The human rights package that was put through only a week or so ago was catching up on things that were done perhaps five to 10 years ago in some other States or the Commonwealth. They are still desperately needed.
It is with some real pleasure that I say that this Disability Services Bill, when enacted, will mean that the ACT is only the second jurisdiction in Australia to be able to deliver on the commitments that all heads of government gave to the Commonwealth at the Special Premiers Conference earlier this year. Victoria just pipped us to the post. They got their legislation through the Victorian upper house only last week. But the ACT has beaten every other State or Territory in getting the disability services legislation on the table and out to the community.
There was extensive community consultation on this. On a matter of such importance, normally one would be reluctant to introduce a Bill and debate it within a week, because one obviously would be concerned that the community needed to have a high level of input; but the officials who have carried this through from its original conception before the Commonwealth agreement was signed have ensured that all sectors of the community in the ACT with an interest have been closely involved.
I was able to assure the house that this Bill had the support of the community. I am sure that other members with an interest in these matters were well aware also of the enthusiasm with which relevant community groups saw the passage of this Bill. It shows that when we are not trying to catch up from a backlog, to catch up with work done in years past, this Territory Assembly is able to get things through with a degree of speed and to respond to the community demand better than other States and Territories.
Mr Speaker, I will comment on a number of criticisms that were made by Mr Humphries. I thank Mr Collaery for his generally supportive remarks, particularly in relation to the officials who were involved. I think there were some specific criticisms, though, by Mr Humphries that do require a response. In particular, he was making a
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .